Interpretive Dance

Originally, this was going to be a post about the things "good" parents who don't let their children watch much television miss out on (and, in fact, I will still go over this later), but something happened last night that was more interesting.

Earlier in the week, some friends loaned us a drum and some other musical instruments--I say "loaned," even if they thought it was "gave," because we really don't need any more noisy toys in the house than we already have--and the kids have been enjoying them. Last night, right before bed time (which tends to be when Gabe is at his most high strung and, thus, most entertaining), Gabe decided to put on a show. As usual, we missed the best part while we got the camera, but we were SORT OF able to get him to recreate what he was doing. We took three different videos, and all of them have something to offer, but the first two are the best as Gabe used his own body to play his shaking instruments against.

A pretty good piece of video--though I need to break him of the habit of performing for a few seconds then wanting to immediately see it on the camera. It tends to disrupt the flow of things.

This one had the best bit where he hits himself on the head with the rattles. I like how it took a little bit for him to realize that it hurt.

I meant to make a Mary Poppins/one man band reference while we were recording, but I hesitated, not sure if I was actually remembering Dick Van Dyke doing that in Mary Poppins or if that was just part of some weird dream I'd had. Not that I am prone to dreaming about Dick Van Dyke. I mean, I DO dream about him. Not in a weird way. Except dreaming about Dick Van Dyke being a one man band is a pretty weird way to dream about him, if I'm dreaming about him at all.

Now, onto the other thing.

We are bad parents. I, especially, am a bad parent. Before we had kids we swore that we wouldn't let the TV be our babysitter. We would raise our own kids and they would be creative and brilliant and learn to entertain themselves and all that jazz--and perhaps they would even grow to love jazz, though that would have been something that I discouraged since most jazz is kind of awful (no offense to anyone who likes jazz--I just don't get you, or your music).

But then reality set in. Did you know that, without television, it becomes your personal responsibility to entertain your child for EVERY WAKING MOMENT OF EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS? I did not know that initially. It never even crossed my mind. In addition to this fact, you also WILL NOT BE ABLE TO WATCH TV YOURSELF FOR YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS LEST YOU SET A BAD EXAMPLE FOR YOUR CHILD. That fact also never dawned on me.

And I loves me some TV.

So, clearly, this was doomed to fail from the outset.

But, then, Gabe ended up not really caring that much about the television. We might keep it on in the background, but he didn't really pay attention to it. He had more important things to do and parts of the dining room to be in. So, in a way, nature saved me the embarrassment of admitting that I was a failure. Which was awfully nice of her.

Then came Norah.

Norah is, I'm sad to say, a bit of a TV junkie. She will watch it with rapt attention, sitting through entire programs at times and giving it her full focus (probably the reason why Gabe has been able to take or leave it--generally he is only able to focus on not being focused). What's more, she is a bit of a TV savant. She has a weird, almost uncanny, ability to remember character names from shows that she has only seen bits and pieces of--and some that I swear she's never seen at all. And not just main characters, either. Every once in awhile she'll spout off the name of a character in a show and it will take me awhile to actually figure out who she's talking about.

Take Spongebob, for instance. Now, for the most part, we've restricted Gabe from watching "big kid" cartoons when Norah is in the room. Once in awhile we might watch a Phineas and Ferb or something on Nick, but not very often. Probably we have watched Spongebob around her a few times, but, as a rule, when big kid cartoons are on, she doesn't pay attention to them. If there aren't any bright colors or songs or characters speaking at a nice, slow, measured pace that's easy for small children to understand, she moves on to something else.

So I was surprised when, out of the blue, she pointed to a product in a store and said "BubBob!" And, sure enough, there was Spongebob. Now, being able to recognize Spongebob without having seen the show is probably not a stretch. He's everywhere. But, the other day, she was looking at the box of Spongebob fruit snacks we have (yeah, I know, I'm a failure AND I buy products with the characters on them--there is NO hope for me at this point) and she said "Cabs!" and pointed at Mr. Crabs. I have no idea how she picked up that name having not really watched the show that much, but she did.

And she's done it several times, too. She knows the name of Dan's little brother in Dino Dan. She picked out Diego's name (I think she actually has a bit of a crush on Diego, she LOVES him and always points him out when she sees him) by watching DORA--not Go Diego Go, because that show is terrible and I don't let the kids watch it if I can avoid it. She calls him Gogowah. Not sure why, unless it's some sort of a reference to the name of the show, which, again, I can't explain since I don't think she's seen the show more than maybe twice--and both of those times I bet she didn't see more than five minutes of before I caught it and put something else on.

See? Savant. Or "gifted" perhaps.

BUT, there is one thing that good parents who don't let their kids veg in front of the TV (and I say that, but, before everyone gets the wrong idea, she doesn't sit in front of the TV all day--she might LOOK like that's all she does, but she doesn't, I swear) will miss out on: the adorable cuteness of a small child saying character names. My favorite one of hers is Dino Dan. It is so cute you almost want to hug the words themselves. And having her say that name almost makes it OK for that awful, awful show to exist.

Here, watch this.

Usually, when I say "Muno," she will continue with all of the Gabba characters in the order that they appear in the intro song. This time she needed extra encouragement, though. And you might have to turn up the volume a little bit to hear her say some of the names. She kept turning away from the camera and the mic on our camera isn't very good.

I don't think there can be any denying that that was cute. Is it a fair trade off for branding an intrinsically unhealthy appreciation for the boob tube onto my child's brain? . . .Yes. Yes it is. Or at least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself until the time when both of the kids are old enough to entertain themselves and I don't need the TV to get a bit of peace and quiet in my house. Whatever I need to tell myself to get through the day, right? Right.